1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an on-vehicle emergency notification device that notifies about an occurrence of an emergency event, such as a vehicle accident or collision, from a vehicle to a notification center.
2. Description of Related Art
As an on-vehicle emergency notification device, the device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-285350 (JP 2000-285350 A) is known. This device can wirelessly send and receive various types of information to and from the notification center. When an emergency event occurs, the device can wirelessly send information, such as the current vehicle's position, to the notification center via an emergency notification to request the police or the firehouse to send an emergency vehicle. In addition to sending an emergency notification, the device can send a test notification to make an operation test.
Conventionally, this type of device, including the device described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-285350, a test notification is sent only during the development stage of the device in most cases and, at that time, an emergency notification is never sent. Recently, however, a vehicle having such a device mounted thereon is required to have the ability to send a test notification not only during the development stage but also after going on the market. In this case, because a test notification is sent also to a public notification center, the two types of notification, an emergency notification and a test notification, must be clearly distinguished during the practical operation considering the nature of the system. However, due to the cost and the mounting space, the notification device is not usually equipped with a user interface that distinguishes between these two types of notification. One possible solution to this problem is to provide a button to start emergency notification or test notification and, via that switch, emergency notification and test notification are switched according to the operation mode. However, an erroneous determination of such an operation mode may lead to a situation in which a test notification is accepted erroneously as an emergency notification.